The Verows @ UAE!: Truckin' Along...

It’s not surprising that the longer we live here in the UAE, the fewer entries there are on this blog! I suppose it’s because there is nothing new and exciting like there was last year. But there are moments where I still find myself saying, “Oh – this would be good for the blog!” But then from that thought to the actual typing of words can be a long time! Life gets busy, and many evenings all I want to do is sit and watch television. And teaching 30 periods creates more exhaustion! (Last year I only taught 24-27 and we had early release on Thursdays). I did notice today that our blog has had 9,862 page views! Almost 10,000!

I read through my last blog – and at first I was worried it would bring me back to those feelings of loss and sadness that I dealt with this summer after losing my only sister! But it just reminds how much better I am at this point and how I’ve made it through the last few months. I do think about my sister daily. One of the things I really like seeing every day is the cross that was taken from my sister’s casket. My mother got one; we got one, and my grandmother got one. It is items like these that I’ll cherish and hold tight! There are other times I think of Frannie too – like eating tacos here in the UAE and I have a stash of mild sauce that Frannie took from Taco Bell and brought with her when she came to visit me last March/April. Other times are when I say a phrase or reference something that Frannie and I used to talk or laugh about. Like the other night I was talking with some friends and was saying how Caralyn looked like Vera de Milo from In Living Color (a Jim Carey skit). And from time to time we mention things about Frannie and I find myself smiling more than wanting to cry. So inshallah it’ll continue to get easier. So the frustration I had a few months ago has subsided. Well as far as this issue it has!

I was thinking the other day how there are so many frustrating things that occur here and while I do my best to adjust to them, there are some that I find it very difficult to adjust. Like schedule changes. I think we’ve had like 10 different changes. And these changes might be just changing the periods you teach and/or the actual classes you teach. So it might be a few weeks into the year, you have the kids’ names memorized, you get into come curriculum, and BAM – here’s a different class with a new set of issues and dramas to adjust to. Hate it! BUT, when the schedule changes are shortening two periods down to only 30 minutes a day, I’ll take it! Love it! So with any change comes positive and negative. Mostly negative.

School for Cole and Caralyn is going good. Cole’s been on a behavior management gig with his teacher. He has issues with his noise making and following directions. I’m not really surprised. I see so much of myself (when I was a young kid) in him. Not necessarily the critical thinking and what we suspect is some giftedness. But his behaviors – all me! He’s having more good days recently though so that is the good thing. Caralyn is doing really well with her reading. She sort of blossomed as far as her reading abilities this summer. She has more confidence and is doing well with reading and spelling. Math – eh – she’s too quick and/or lazy to sit and draw some tally marks and actually double check her counting. But we’re working on it. We met with her teacher, Miss Megan, last week and she was telling us how helpful Caralyn is in school and how sweet she is. Jennifer and I looked at each other and I filled the teacher in on her sassy attitude she likes to display at home! But we’d rather her be good at school and let out the attitude at home! It is a relief to see how much they love school and enjoy going each day! Makes like easy for everyone! Wish I could say the same!

Cole and Caralyn have been busy with rugby the last several weeks. They practice twice a week and will have a game/tournament inshallah sometime soon. It was rather hilarious watching Cole have his own games and drills while he was waiting on the group, or instructions from the coaches. There were even a few times when he was doing his own gymnastics routine on the rugby field while the others were in lines or practicing. And typically Cole isn’t alone with this off-task-ness. But he’s getting better. And we’re all still, sort of, learning the rules to rugby. It’s rather confusing.

School life for me has been interesting. I have some of the same students, but mostly new ones. And there are new and bizarre things that happen daily in my teaching life. Here are just a few highlights:

(1) Respectful Posture - I was telling a student to sit down and he said he couldn’t because his leg hurt with he sat. So I grabbed another chair, and said, “Here – put your leg up so it won’t hurt!” The student said he couldn’t because he respects me too much (yea right!). I tried to tell him it’s no big deal. He said it was. His friend then explains to me that when you’re with an elder or someone of higher status you don’t put your feet up and lounge. You sit up straight with feet on the ground. They further explained that when they ‘re at home and sitting in their living room, they do not put their feet up and lay back on the sofa if their father is in the room. It’s a sign of disrespect to do so. And even if their father is lounging, they do not. He said it is part of the Arab culture. Interesting.

(2) Window Smasher! A few weeks ago one student was irritating another one and when the one student had enough – he gets up, chases the other one around, and when he catches him, he slaps him and basically pushes him into the shade on the window – and of course the kids’ elbow goes through the window. It did quiet the room, and the other student just sat there the rest of the period. I took a photo with my phone, emailed the social worker (who are “in charge of student misbehavior”). Nothing happened with either student. And so we have a daily reminder that So-and-So will shove you through a window if you irritate him.

(3) Deuces! One thing that I see in non-American people is that they always find it necessary to take a picture with the peace sign (you know – the two fingers up!). It’s interesting. So one day a student asks me what it means in English. Here most will call it “Two Peace’s”! So I tell him it depends who you ask – which puzzled him. I said some will say “peace”. And then since I couldn’t just leave it at that I explained that some say “deuces” and then went further how when some people throw up the peace sign they’ll say “chunk the deuce”. And every day I leave this particular class, this one student (who always asks me questions and loves to have conversations with me about anything – appropriate of course) will make sure he comes over to me and says, “deuces” as I leave the class. It’s quite humorous!

(4) It’s The Captain! This year I was observant enough to see how they selected class leaders. They called whoever was interested to the front of the room, turned them around, had the class vote, and khallas! And of course, as is typical in any school, the clowns get lots of votes. Well for some classes, it hasn’t been bad. Others – not so much. My favorite thing is the class who has a captain that stands at the door and doesn’t let anyone out of the classroom. It’s hilarious! There is another one who every now and then walks about with a cord that is connects the computer monitor to the CPU, and swats students when he deems necessary. It’s hilarious. Yesterday this same captain stood outside the door and patrolled the hallways since they were so chaotic and I was getting irritated with the random students that kept coming in the class and banging on the door.

Since this is our last year here in the UAE, there are things we want to make sure we do. One of those things I wanted to do last year was attend some films at the Abu Dhabi film festival. But never did. So this year – I’m doing two weekends. Last weekend I saw a great documentary – American Empire. And then two fictional films – Songlap (a Malaysian film) and A Highjacking (a Danish film). All of them were awesome. This weekend I’ll head back to AD to check out two more along with the short film competition.

We’re super excited about our upcoming trip to Beruwela, Sri Lanka! Can’t wait to sit on the beach and play in the sand with the kids, go see some turtle hatcheries, and visit an elephant orphanage. A much deserved holiday indeed! WALLAH!

Deep thoughts by Jennifer (Jennifer and her technology – so Jennifer got side tracked typing her message and Facebook took over and so she gets into her typing and BAM – computer shuts down. Well I immediately start to giggle and try to stop but can’t. Jennifer gets that look of frustration and the computer actually starts doing updates. I then I ask if it asked to update and she said she clicked later. Well that was later! So here’s her deep thoughts: I got a student teacher named Miss Shaimma. She is a blessing after all. I have been very fortunate to have a qualified student from the UAEU program. She is doing a great job with the girls. It sure is funny to sit back and watch her teach. It is like looking in a mirror sometimes. I often wonder do I really sound like that or do I really do that? Today she told one of the girls they were "grounded" from centers. I personally would have just told her to stay at her desk and read, but she took it to the next level. She did not learn that from me. Also, we had too many EMTs so one teacher is being moved. My principal decided to be fair and put everyone's name in a hat and pick one. Thank goodness it wasn't my name. It was a teacher who has been here four years and this is now going to be her fourth school. Ugh. Whatever happened to last one hired, first one fired. Apparently it is not in the UAE guidelines. We got five new teachers and one would assume one of them would go, but NOPE. It was another lady. With the loss of a teacher, that means kids being moved around. I now have 21 girls in each of my two blocks. Yikes. We'll see how this year goes. That's a lot of bodies in a class. At least I have a student teacher until the winter break.

Here are some new words I’ve learned this year. I’m making it a habit when I hear words repeatedly I write them down and I have two students who I always ask what they mean. I’m waiting for the day when I ask them about a profane word (which I haven’t learned any yet!) or something I realize was said about me!

Nefciya (nef-see-ya) – a mad/crazy person

Salah (sa-la) - prayer time (we have a prayer break every day for 15-20 minutes)

Dareesha (da-ree-sha) - window

Kathawb (ka-th-awe-b) – liar

(This one has already been committed to memory!!!!!!!)

I just love this picture!!!! It came out great! This is the cross from my sister's casket.

Caralyn in a batoola (or bourga). The conservative women wear these (typically older conservative women). I think it's worn to "hide" the areas that are possibly attractive to a man. Some boys in a class of mine were throwing this around class and being silly with it - so I took it to do photos of Caralyn!